Scalefour Forum

martin goodall wrote:I have found that having done something before is no guarantee of its being easy to repeat. There have been a number of occasions when I have been faced with some constructional problem, and recalled that I had been there before but, even when carefully examining the earlier model, ended up thinking - "How the hell do I do that?" - and then having to re-invent the wheel.

The answer, of course, is to make notes as you go along and keep them for future reference, but it is easy to forget, or to be in too much of a hurry to be bothered with writing up notes.

Fine, I am a copious note taker.

The challenge then is to be able to track down the notes a decade or two later; one needs to have a well organised system.
The danger then is that the notes library system either takes over as a task supplanting modelling time or is on an old dead computer and you mislaid the back up CD......

paultownsend wrote:
The challenge then is to be able to track down the notes a decade or two later; one needs to have a well organised system.
The danger then is that the notes library system either takes over as a task supplanting modelling time or is on an old dead computer and you mislaid the back up CD......

Hand-written notes in a notebook are definitely the best and most accessible means of preserving this sort of information. They don't need further compilation or processing, so should not take up valuable model-making time.

I use a computer all the time for my work, and for recording all sorts of information for model-making purposes, but when it comes to 'workshop notes' I find that (on the rare occasions when I actually bother to do so) it is both easier to do it in hand-writing in a notebook there and then and to keep the notes in that form, rather than writing them up later on the computer.

I have been caught out in the past by electronic data which is no longer accessible or is stored on obsolete systems. Printing it out and keeping the hard copy is the only really reliable long-term storage method.

P.S. Back OT, I am really looking forward to seeing Jim's BNS layout at Scaleforum.

I am in the track making phase of my layout and I make copious notes in a spiral bound notebook.

One word of warning.

The spiral binding is metal.

When putting it down, do not allow the metal spiral to contact your track.

Especially if you are attempting to verify track wiring.

Would anyone like to guess how much time I spent debugging (otherwise perfect) track wiring?

Hi All

Sometimes there are projects that for a little work yield big results such as...



Then there are projects that are a lot of work but don't look like much, such as...



These are boards 3 and 4 and I am working my way through the platform edges and surfacing. I dont usually 'count' things but some figures might give an idea of how much work is involved

• All of the platform sides are now in. Something in the region of 40 packs (200 sections) of Peco platform sides for the whole station

• On these two boards there is in excess of 6000 scale feet of platform faces!

• Also on these 2 boards (when finished) I will have had to hand scribe more then 3000 paving slabs.

• In this picture there is 1.3 scale miles of trackwork.


A lot of work but it doesnt look it.

Cheers

Jim

jim s-w wrote:...A lot of work but it doesnt look it
Jim

Looks like a lot of work to me Jim.

Will

Hi all

A little teaser of work on the eastern end of the station. Roll on scaleforum in 2 weeks!





Cheers

Jim

Hi All

A few more piccies before the layout is packed away for Scaleforum Next weekend.







This is the dock at the derby end, I wonder if vehicles were ever loaded with it?

Cheers

Jim

Well done Jim

See you on Friday, take care!

Cheers
Tim

Hi All

Been looking at SPA's recently

It is my usual approach when doing lots of wagons of the same type to use one as a prototype. In this case one of my older SPA's already had sprung w-irons so it was selected to be the guinea pig for my improved brake details



I dont believe you have to go mad on this sort of stuff as most people will never see it anyway. I added the inner frames as they do show below the solebar on the real wagons however on the model you really need to look for them so I wont bother on the others. The rest of the new brake gear is just bits of microstrip and wire.



Before and after. As the SPA underframe is so open I think it is worth the effort.

Cheers

Jim

Very nice, Jim. A big improvement for a reasonable effort.

Any chance of a close up of the area between the wheels just to get a better idea of the shapes and connections going on there?

The lack of brakes on Bachy OxAs has been bothering me for some time...

Hi James

Does this help at all?



To the rear a bachmann OBA and to the front the Cambrian SPA

Cheers

Jim

Hi All

Been doing a spot of weathering, the following are all half finished.



The method I use is very similar to the way you use water colours wet in wet except these are enamels. The first stage is to paint the wagon with thinners (do one side at a time and keep it horizontal while it dries). With a fine brush and small amounts of paint paint the main areas of dirt. use several colours as per a photo of the real wagon and mix the paint on the model. With the brush clean blend the paint into the thinners. For the small specs on this SPA I gently pulled a screwdriver upwards through the bristles of a loaded brush, letting the spring back deposit small drops of paint on the wagon side roughly as per the prototype pic I was working too.



One wagon kit you don't see built very often (no idea why) is the Cambrian BPA Boplate. I used Jon Halls brass bogie frames and Colin Craig's handwheels. Another change was to replace the lower underframe truss with brass section as the original was quite weak and distorted.



A chivers Ling. In my era I dont get a lot of opportinity to do wooden wagons. The method (for the wood) is different to above. Again mixing paint on the wagon but this time without the thinners and always drawing the paint in the direction of the wood. The metal bits were done later as above, I wonder why the second plank down on these wagons was metal?

As mentioned at the start, these are only partially complete. The underframes will be done with an airbrush as these area are slightly protected from the rain by the body and are more sprayed than washed. The link will also have a light dusting over the body to make it look properly decrepid (thats after the transfers have been added).

Hope people find this useful.

Cheers

Jim

Lovely work Jim. For the rivets are you using Archer resin transfers, slices of plastic rod or other?

Andy

I wonder why the second plank down on these wagons was metal?

I would surmise that this is to provide secure fixings for the clips that hold the door shut, they would be quite vulnerable to breakage and or rot at the ends of a timber plank.
Regards
Keith

grovenor-2685 wrote:

I wonder why the second plank down on these wagons was metal?

I would surmise that this is to provide secure fixings for the clips that hold the door shut, they would be quite vulnerable to breakage and or rot at the ends of a timber plank.
Regards
Keith

It would also stop the door twisting as much when dropped and raised being channel section. Its quite a small drop door compared to some the LNER employed on Tube wagons though!

Thanks all for the thoughts on the metal plank on the Ling

Some good old fashioned Lima-bashing.



A whale from 2 sealions. (I know that Cambrian do a kit now but I started these years ago)

From 4 sealions you can get 3 whales. This one uses cambrian bogies, Colin Craig handwheels, some spare bits from a Parkside Grampus for the Air Brake gear and buffer heads from MJT.

Still to do are the steps and the protective mesh roof over the walkways.

The lima sealion was a bit on an odd wagon, nice body with loads of extra bits but stuck on some completely wrong, european bogie. Didn't make sense really.

Cheers

Jim

Hi All

I Know Bachmann have just released these but I had a pile of unbuilt Cambrian kits for BAA's, the one at the back is an earlier one I did with AME cradles.



Cheers

Jim

Hi All

the BAA's big brother



Looking at Paul Bartletts site a lot of these seemed to have different handwheels either end. Always the same on both sides of each bogie.

Cheers

Jim

Hi All

Just wishing all members of the Scalefour Society a Merry Christmas - hope its a good one


(original image © The Scalefour Society - Used with Permission)

Cheers

Jim

Hi All

Had a little bit of an NSE take over tonight although (aside from a class 317) this will be pretty much all the NSE stock on the layout.


50 023 meets up with a class 310.


50 023 again viewed from over the wall

Cheers

Jim

Hi All

Currently OMWB is this:



The new Sturgeon Kit in 4mm scale from Cambrian. I have replaced the buffers and will use Colin Craig's handwheels. I also want to replace the door bangers too with etched ones but otherwise a nice kit. You will note the far end isnt complete yet due to a part being missing (first time I have ever had this on a cambrian kit and I have built loads). Hopefully they can send me a spare. Edit - Cambrian are sending me a spare!

Cheers

Jim

Hi All

Been busy adding a handrail to my stairs from a few bits of brass. (the sides were kindly laser cut for me by Tim H)



Its turned out a bit rough this one so i'll probably use it on the platform 2 and 3 island where its quite likely you wont be able to see it.

also OMWB is a K8 phone box from the A1 Kit. I found the door to be on the side on all the piccies i looked at not the front so I re-arranged the sides.



You can see from the inset that, for a bit of a giggle, I added a phone book and the handset from microstrip and the cable from strand of wire.

Cheers

Jim

Surely there should just be a dangling wire and the phone book needs to be ripped? I always remember these in a vandalized state!

David

Hi David

thats because (unless you were looking for one to make a phone call) you would only notice them in a vandalised state. We are pre-programed to dismiss normality very quickly.

Cheers

Jim

jim s-w wrote:Hi David

thats because (unless you were looking for one to make a phone call) you would only notice them in a vandalised state. We are pre-programed to dismiss normality very quickly.

Cheers

Jim

Normality? Birmingham? I was growing up there in the 80's as well, and don't remember any functioning phoneboxes either!

Memory can be a tricky thing though. I've just been invited by a mate to take the family to a festival this summer. The headline act is Public Image Limited. I last saw them live when I was at school, about thirty years ago, at Digbeth Civic Hall - I still have the ticket stub somewhere. Yet it seems like yesterday

Flymo